War in Ukraine is a ‘huge blow’ to nature as Belarus’ largest nature NGO closes | Global Development

One of the oldest and largest nature NGOs in Belarus is forced to close after allegations of “extremist activity” as conservationists warn of “darkness” engulfing a region known for its rich natural heritage.

Former BirdLife Belarus (APB) employees have been arrested and one has been in prison for six months on suspicion of attempting to disrupt the political situation in the country under the guise of protecting birds. The organization has been ordered by a court to close next month after 24 years of operation.

Across the border in Ukraine, physicists working to conserve bats and the gut microbiome of venomous snakes are accused of working on biological weapons. Vladimir Putin has falsely claimed that “dozens of labs in Ukraine” led by the US are experimenting with infectious diseases such as the coronavirus.

In Belarus, environmentalists say they are concerned about phone tapping and the safety of people speaking out. A source told the Guardian: “Belarus has been virtually taken over by Putin.

“The darkness that has engulfed the east of our region is also overtaking those who protect the environment,” the source said. “Aside from the sheer injustice, this is a huge blow to conservation on a global scale.”

These lands are home to Polesia, a wetland area more than two-thirds the size of the UK (18 million hectares), known as “the Amazon of Europe” for its extraordinary biodiversity, as well as parts of the Carpathian Mountains and the Danube Delta, the largest river delta wetland of Europe. Adham Ashton-Butt of the British Trust for Ornithology has worked in the Belarusian and Ukrainian parts of Poland. In 2019, he said the region felt politically stable, but when he returned from the worst pandemic in 2021, dozens of NGOs were closed, with a spate of raids and arrests.

APB was one of the last remaining organizations still active. “Increasing government paranoia changed that,” he said. “Any organization thought to have the potential to be anti-government has been threatened. In terms of APB, I think this was completely incorrect. APB wasn’t involved in this kind of politics, they were completely focused on conservation.”

Ashton-Butt said the organization had achieved “huge things” with minimal resources. This included the rewetting of more than 17,200 hectares (42,000 acres) of carbon-rich peat bogs and the expansion of one of Europe’s largest wetland complexes, bringing it to a total size of 100,000 hectares. APB also led efforts to halt development of the E40 waterway connecting the Baltic and Black Seas, and to save the water warbler from extinction.

“Failing conservation organizations to operate leads to the possible erosion of protected areas,” Ashton-Butt said, adding that it was “crazy” to think of Russian tanks driving over the pristine peat bogs where he used to work. Some conservationists in Polesia are in the heart of the war, trapped in their homes without power or water.

APB acted as a barrier to new development, and now that the organization is gone, there is a greater chance of major infrastructure projects going ahead, he said. “You see the drainage of wetlands and commercial forestry continuing because there is no one to stand up to it. Belarus’ forests and peatlands are the most pristine in Europe. If they are drained, degraded or cut down, they will be the last. forests and wetlands of their kind in Europe.”

As the Russian war on Ukraine continues and the fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II unfolds, human lives are a priority. Environmental work is being suspended and urgent attention is being paid to providing food and shelter to refugees leaving Ukraine. Neighboring Romania, Slovakia and Poland are buying emergency supplies and delivering them to the border, helping colleagues fleeing the country.

The Frankfurt Zoological Society has lost more than a third of its European program as a result of the war in Ukraine, where it had been doing conservation work for two decades. It has supported efforts to help refugees fleeing the conflict find temporary residence in protected areas.

Organizations such as WWF and the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN have issued statements stating that peace is essential for nature to thrive, condemning war as having profound humanitarian and environmental consequences. “The damage caused by armed conflict goes far beyond that caused by the fighting itself. By destroying governance, the reverberating ecological consequences of conflict can persist for decades,” the UN said in a statement.

Politically, the war threatens to jeopardize the biodiversity plan of the European Green Deal, with the EU delaying publication of the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive and “nature restoration” targets, citing food security concerns as a result of the war.

More than 160 environmental NGOs have signed a letter to the European Commission asking that green proposals not be postponed due to the urgent need to tackle climate and biodiversity crises. Rather than cutting wildlife resources in response to the war, they believe the commission should reduce food waste, reduce livestock numbers, rely on fertilizers and discourage the use of food crops for energy.

Ariel Brunner, Director of Policy for BirdLife Europe and Central Asia, said: “There is a furious attempt to derail them [the green proposals] in the name of food security. In fact, the peasant lobbies are saying, ‘There is war in Ukraine, Ukraine will not export grain, this will lead to a food security crisis’, and that we need to go back to produce, produce, produce and drop environmental protection. stuff.”

Brunner believes this risks destroying the green agenda and fueling the next environmental crisis. “There is scientific consensus that the only major threat to our ability to feed ourselves is climate change and the collapse of ecosystems, so it is completely self-defeating to use food security to fail to address these issues.”

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